Thursday, August 20, 2015

Slovakia Will Reject Muslim Migrants In EU Redistribution Plan

Last month, the European Union ministers agreed to a plan to redistribute some 32,000 of the 150,000 migrants from war-torn Syria, Iraq, Eritrea and Somalia that have found their way across the Mediterranean to Greece and Italy. As reported by TRT World, the EU hopes to reach agreement by the end of the year on redistribution of an additional 8,000. Meanwhile, The Telegraph reported yesterday that while Slovakia has agreed to accept 200 of the migrants, it says it will not accept any Muslims. An Interior Ministry spokesman said:

[W]e don't have any mosques in Slovakia so how can Muslims be integrated if they are not going to like it here?

EU sources say that while it would be legal to prioritize Christians because they are at extra risk of persecution, rejecting Muslims would be impermissible discrimination. But the Slovakian government says it plans to ask arriving migrants their religion.